


Glass of Time

by derryderrydown



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-13
Updated: 2009-11-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 14:30:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/derryderrydown/pseuds/derryderrydown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Jack/real!Jack. Because they are my OTP of Schmoop and the Doctor has a time machine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glass of Time

Jack leaned against the TARDIS' console and folded his arms. "I did something for you," he said. "You should do something for me."

The Doctor didn't even look up from whatever he was aiming his screwdriver at. "Actually, you don't get a reward for saving your own planet. You just get to say, 'Hey, I've still got a planet! Yay!' And I'm not doing anything with a banana."

"What?"

"What?" The Doctor looked up. "Oh, you weren't suggesting the thing with the banana and the..." He waved a hand vaguely. "Sorry. So, what were you suggesting?"

"You'll do me a favour?" Jack said.

"God, no." The Doctor seemed to consider it. "Well, not unless it's fun. Or interesting. Or completely impossible. Ooh, yeah, give me something completely impossible to do! I haven't done anything impossible for at least three days. I'm kind of missing it."

"I want you to save somebody's life."

"Ah. Is this one of those wiggly, timeline-altering savings of life?"

"Not... really?"

"Then, no." The Doctor turned his attention back to helping the TARDIS heal. After a moment, without looking up, he said, "Sorry."

* * *

They were having a picnic on Yariknalof, purpley-blue almost-grass stretching out around them, when Jack said, "It's not really a timeline-altering deal."

"I said no," the Doctor said, harsher than he'd ever spoken to Jack.

"What?" Martha said, glancing between them.

"The Doctor won't save somebody's life," Jack explained.

"_What?_" Martha sat up straight and glared at the Doctor. "You've got to!"

"Everybody dies eventually, Martha. I can't save them all. I shouldn't save them all."

"I don't die," Jack said softly but the Doctor had changed the subject and was chattering on too brightly, while Martha looked unhappy.

* * *

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack said.

"And I'm the Doctor. Nice to meet you. When did you lose your memory, by the way?"

Martha was asleep and the TARDIS was en route to somewhere else hazy and sunny and safe. The only sort of place they'd visited since defeating the Master. "What do you know about him?" Jack asked. "About the _real_ Captain Jack Harkness."

"Is this one of those talks? Where you try to persuade me that you're a truly deep and thoughtful person and I don't know anything about you? Because I don't like those talks. I've decided not to have them unless we're in the middle of saving the world."

"I showed up in London in the middle of the Second World War and I needed a name. I took his. What do you know about him?"

"Absolutely nothing."

"Then saving him can't destroy the universe."

The Doctor was still, then reached out and rested his hand on Jack's cheek. "It can. I'm really, really sorry, but it can."

"Oh, _fuck_ you," Jack said.

* * *

Jack was woken by his bed shifting as somebody sat on it. It shifted more as the somebody lay down and Jack moved over to make room. "Tell me about him," the Doctor said.

Jack didn't need to ask who. "He was brave." He let out a sharp breath and shook his head. "Braver than you can possibly imagine. And he cared so damn much. Fought for what he believed in; fought to save people who weren't even his own. He was a _good man_, Doctor."

"How did he die?"

"Does it matter?"

"Just tell me."

And it was the Doctor, so Jack said, "Twenty-first of January, 1941. It was just a training flight. They were attacked out of the blue. He got three of them, gave his boys time to get home, but he couldn't save himself." After a moment, he added softly, "They heard him die."

"So how am I meant to save him?"

"Just... scoop him up. His plane burned to nothing. There were no remains."

"And then what? He can't go back to his own time."

"So dump him in the twenty-first century. With me."

The Doctor was silent.

"I know you're going to drop me there soon. You can hardly look at me. I'm surprised you can stand being this close to me." Jack reached out, took the Doctor's hand in his, felt the the aborted flinch. "Give me a souvenir."

* * *

The nausea from the teleport was familiar; the searing pain of the fire around him wasn't. "Surprise," Jack said, grabbed Jack, and teleported out.

The other Jack - the real Captain Jack - was unconscious when they reappeared on the TARDIS. Jack was fairly sure that was a good thing.

"Oh, my god," Martha said, and clapped her hand over her mouth. "He's- There's nothing I can do! I need- I need an entire hospital and a burns unit and even then-"

"Martha!" Jack grabbed her shoulders. "You're all we've got."

She shut her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath. "Right, we need to cool him down, stop him burning more. Cold water. Immerse him in cold water."

Jack knelt to scoop the Captain into his arms and it was a struggle not to gag at the stench of charred flesh. "Which way?"

"Leave him," the Doctor said, still standing back with his arms folded.

"I'm _not_ just letting him die," Jack snapped. "Not this time."

"You've got plenty of life. Give him some of it." The Doctor smiled, head tilted a little. "Kiss of life."

"How the hell's that-"

"Let the TARDIS take care of it," the Doctor said, and patted the console.

Jack didn't want to. The Captain's face was blistered and cracked and there was nothing there of the officer he'd danced with that night. But he shut his eyes, lowered his head, and felt the unnatural heat of the remains of the Captain's lips against his own.

For a moment, that was it. Remnants of flesh and bone and he thought he was going to be sick.

And then the warmth in his chest, spreading through him until he was sure he was glowing, and the Captain was moving in his arms, flesh growing whole and healthy and when he finally opened his eyes, the Captain was staring up at him.

"James?" he said softly.

"Yeah." Jack couldn't keep the smile off his face.

"I... I died. I'm sure I died. How...?"

"You're not dead," Jack said, and he was smiling so broadly his face hurt. "You're so very, very not dead." He pulled the Captain to his feet, kept hold of his hand. "And I really need to kiss you, now."

* * *

The explanations looked set to be long, involved and insanely complicated. Jack wasn't particularly surprised when the Doctor boiled it down to, "The man who stole your name scooped you up in a time-travelling space ship and stopped you dying. Oh, and you can never go home again."

The Captain dealt with it surprisingly well.

A few weeks later, lying in bed with Jack, he said, "So, is this my life now? Flying around and shopping and having picnics?"

"Well," Jack said. "There's this war that I'm fighting. I really need to be getting back there."

"War," the Captain said softly. "I hoped war was over."

"It's not a typical war," Jack said. "It's kind of... defending the earth. Against aliens and time rifts and whatever's too big for anybody else to handle." After a moment, he said, "I was hoping you'd want to join the fight."

"Defending the earth," the Captain said.

"Big job, I know. And there's only five of us doing it. I could really use some help."

"I'd have to change my name," the Captain said idly.

"It's your name," Jack said. "I'll change mine."

"You've had it longer," the Captain said.

"You've had it all your life."

"You'll have it at the end of the universe."

"There is that," Jack said. "But, really, I stole-"

"I want to," the Captain said. "I'll be..." He turned to Jack and smiled. "I'll be James Harper."


End file.
